Collide
by Beckles1987
Summary: Harry and Nikki's latest case takes an unexpected twist. There's a RTC in London...only they aren't the ones called to the scene to investigate, they're the ones in the car. Set after Shadows.
1. You're Barely Waking

Title: Collide, 1/? - You're Barely Waking  
Rating: Same as the show...T I guess. There's two four letter words in there. One F and one S.  
Summary: Harry and Nikki's latest case takes an unexpected twist. There's a RTC in London...only they aren't the ones called to the scene to investigate, they're the ones in the car. Set before Home...mostly because I didn't like that episode and don't want to refer to it.  
Pairing: Harry/Nikki friendship, might mention Leo/Janet in passing.  
Notes: Many thanks to **charlilou88** for helping me pin down Harry's age.  
Disclaimer: I own it all. I am the BBC, I have Emilia and Tom chained up in my cellar...jk. I don't even own a dvd boxset. :(

* * *

Nikki didn't see the land rover speeding towards the car, didn't realise what Harry's panicked yell meant, not until it was far too late. There was nothing she could do, nothing except grab for his hand and pray.

Afterwards, the only sound she could hear was the thundering of her pulse in her ears. Her eyes fluttered open and closed as she tried to make sense of her surroundings. The driver's side door had been crumpled in by a lamppost, the shattering window pelting her with shards of glass, thousands of fracture lines crossed the windscreen, obscuring her view of the road, her airbag had deployed from the centre of the steering wheel and was currently deflating, Harry…wasn't moving.

Fuck.

A sharply drawn in breath caused an even sharper pain in the left side of her chest, it brought all her other pains to life, her right leg and arm, her head, her face. It didn't matter, it couldn't matter, not when she didn't even know if Harry was still…

A scream forced its way past gritted teeth as Nikki moved to better assess Harry's condition. She managed a couple of agonising centimetres.

"Harry!" No response, not even a flicker of movement in his left eye. "HARRY!" she looked down at her hand. Somehow it was still in his. Looking him over for any sign of reaction, she squeezed until she knew anybody even remotely conscious would have pulled their hand away or at least twitched.

Reluctantly letting go of Harry's hand, Nikki retrieved her mobile from the centre console and dialled 999.

"Hello, what service do you need?"

"All three. I'm in a serious RTC with multiple casualties, needing the jaws of life and blocking an A road. My passenger needs the air ambulance. There's a big park they can land in."

"What number are you calling from?" Nikki gave her number, knowing it wasn't necessary as she was unlikely to hang up on the people she needed to help Harry.

The police…

"This is Dr Nikki Alexander, Home Office Pathologist. Somebody broadsided my car. I think we've blocked the road. I'm in Tottenham, on the A109. I'd just passed a park. I don't know if the other driver is still in his vehicle or not."

The Fire Brigade…

"This is Dr Nikki Alexander. Somebody broadsided my car trapping myself and a colleague. I think we've blocked the road. I'm in Tottenham, on the A109, near the park. I need the jaws of life for both sides of my car. You might need to move the other car to get to my colleague. I don't know the condition of the other vehicle." She put the phone on her leg while she took her keys from the ignition. "My engine's off, I don't know about the other."

…and the Ambulance service.

"Dr Nikki Alexander, Home Office Pathologist. Somebody broadsided my car causing at least two casualties, one of which is serious. My passenger, Dr Harry Cunningham has a GCS of 3 and suspected serious injuries to the left side of his body. The other driver's condition is unknown. I'm in Tottenham, on the A109. I'd just passed a park."

With fingers that were trembling slightly Nikki put the emergency operator on speakerphone and put her hand close to Harry's mouth, holding back a sob of relief when she felt him exhaling against her hand, then felt for the pulse in his neck.

"Dr Cunningham has tachypnea, tachycardia…" she pressed down on the back of his hand with her thumb and watched the blood return too slowly, "and delayed capillary refill indicating possible hypovolemic shock. There are no signs of external bleeding that would cause hypovolemia, suggesting internal bleeding." Reaching around the back of Harry's head-rest to check the left side of his head without risking movement caused her to grunt in pain but as Nikki was sure she was in no danger of dying, her pain wasn't all that important.

"There's blood on the left side of his head. Brain injury's possible."

"What's his medical history?"

"He's a healthy thirty-eight year old male with a surgically corrected atrial septal defect, no other underlying medical conditions that I know of and no allergies."

"What about you Nikki?"

"Female, 35, no underlying conditions, no allergies."

"What are your injuries?"

"I think I have fractured right ribs, right humerus and right femur, possibly a broken nose." Was that sirens she heard approaching? If it was, they weren't close enough.

"You need to keep calm now. Help is coming."

"I need to call my boss."

"Stay on the line Nikki."

"I'll use Harry's phone." She found it in his inside jacket pocket and rang Leo's mobile, putting it on speakerphone and keeping her good hand on Harry's radial pulse.

"Harry? You two should be at the scene by now." Somehow telling Leo made everything worse, made it real. Tears burned the back of her throat.

"There's been an accident Leo."

"Nikki? Where's Harry? Are you both ok?"

"Harry's unconscious. I think he's in hypovolemic shock…and there's a head injury."

"Have you called 999?"

"They'll be with you in two minutes Nikki."

"Who was that?"

"Emergency operator. I've got you both on hands-free. I need my good hand to check Harry's pulse." Flashing blue light refracted through the shattered windscreen. "They've arrived. We've got help Leo."

"I'm getting in the car now. Where are you?"

"We don't need a pathologist yet."

"Nikki! Don't talk like that, just tell me where you are."

"A109 Tottenham, near a park."

"I'm on my way."

"We'll be here. We're both trapped."

"Shit."

"I know…" A sob welled up but she couldn't afford to release it. If she started crying there was a real chance she wouldn't stop.

"Leo?"

"What Nikki?"

"Tell me Harry will be fine, that everything will be ok." She knew she sounded like a scared child, normally something she hated, but she didn't have room in her head for self-recrimination. Every thought was about Harry, for Harry. He was so badly hurt…if he died…

"Everything will be ok Nikki."

"Liar."


	2. I'm Tangled Up In You

Title: Collide, 2/? - I'm Tangled Up In You  
Rating: Same as the show...T I guess.  
Summary: Harry and Nikki's latest case takes an unexpected twist. There's a RTC in London...only they aren't the ones called to the scene to investigate, they're the ones in the car. Set before Home...mostly because I didn't like that episode and don't want to refer to it.  
Pairing: Harry/Nikki friendship, might mention Leo/Janet in passing.  
Disclaimer: I own it all. I am the BBC, I have Emilia and Tom chained up in my cellar...jk. I don't even own a dvd boxset. :(

* * *

"Dr Alexander?"

Nikki tore her gaze from Harry to glance out her broken window. The male voice belonged to a fire-fighter at her window. Any normal encounter with fire-fighters involved her indulging Harry as he joked about her eagerness to slide down their poles. Today everything was different, everything was wrong. At that moment in time, laughing at or with Harry seemed like a distant dream.

"Doctor Alexander, can you hear me?"

"Yes, sorry. I was remembering the last time I'd worked with the Fire Brigade. It wasn't like this. This is so...wrong." She got a sympathetic nod and followed his gaze back to Harry. He didn't understand.

Nikki was used to being around members of the emergency services, especially the police, but she was always working with them for the good of somebody else, finding the evidence and answers needed to catch a murderer or give a family closure after an unexplained death.

She'd always been the diligent scientist searching for the truth, the one being proactive and in control. She'd never been the powerless victim, nor had she been that terrified person waiting for news of a loved one. Not until Harry had stood under that stupid bomb. She'd been nonchalant afterwards of course, but knowing he could have died at any moment not being capable of doing anything to sway the odds in their favour…it induced a particular kind of mind-numbing terror she couldn't even begin to rationalise away.

It was excruciating.

Harry was sat less than a foot from her and yet she had no clue what the extent of his injuries or prognosis was. He was almost as close as it was physically possible for him to get yet he might be slowly slipping further and further away. The thought petrified her.

Harry could die while she held his hand and then another forensic pathologist would perform a post mortem to discover exactly how it had happened.

She and Harry were the people who investigated things that happened to people, not the people things happened to. Her brain just couldn't get past the anomaly. This wasn't how her world worked.

"We're going to get rid of the lamppost and then the car door so the paramedics can get you to hospital."

"Harry…you have to get him out first."

"We'll get you out together, there's enough of us to go around. You got a first name Doc?"

"Nikki."

"I'm Sam. Me and my team will make sure you and Harry get out of here as quick and safe as possible, ok Nikki?"

"Sounds good to me."

"I need you to be my eyes inside the car ok? You've got to stay awake and stay focused while we wait for a sparky from the council."

"What?"

"We're going to have to get 'em to disconnect the light from the circuit."

"Haringey council?" Most of the locals wouldn't trust them to empty their bins. They were infamous all over Britain for their part in the deaths of two innocent children. It was just one more thing for Nikki to worry about.

"I'll be looking over his shoulder the whole time."

"Good."

The distinctive sound of helicopter blades could be heard over the wailing of an approaching ambulance. Seconds later a doctor and five paramedics converged on the car and Sam disappeared, giving the medics room to work.

"Nikki I'm Dr Kathryn Marsters, has Harry regained consciousness at any time since the accident?"

"No." Dr Marsters climbed into the back of the car and started checking Harry over, putting a cervical collar on him as one of the paramedics attending to Nikki did the same to her while shining a light in her eyes and trying to ask about her injuries. Nikki was paying more attention to Dr Marsters and the paramedics helping Harry.

"Nikki are you hurt anywhere we don't already know about?"

"How is he?"

"We're going to give you something for the pain, ok Nikki?"

"Breath sounds are diminished on the left side."

"Just a sharp scratch." It wasn't a scratch, sharp or otherwise. It felt like a needle going into her good arm, a hot needle, but she didn't point out the lie.

"He's hypotensive…and his lips are cyanotic." The medical professional in Nikki processed the technical terms in a less than a second, it gave the rest of her more time to worry about the fact that Harry's left lung had evidently collapsed and there was no room for the doctor to insert a chest tube. She couldn't even turn to see what was happening now her head and neck were immobilised.

"Pass me a cannula and a catheter bag Lucy."

"Get an IV line in his arm. Joe, fetch a bag of NS and be his drip stand."

"His abdomen's rigid. There's probably blood in his peritoneum."

"Will he be alright?" Nikki was ignored for the second time

"I need an ETA for that recovery vehicle. Prep the KED and the vacuum mattress. Ian, pass me some scissors. We have to get his seat belt off. "

The doctor was definitely worried.

That told her all she needed to know about Harry's chances.

"Nikki, we need to splint your arm. It might hurt but it'll feel better after, I promise." Her other paramedic, the one that wasn't Ian, came into her field of vision, holding the splint in place while he secured it with triangular bandages.

"Recovery's here."

"It's about time. Get that helicopter ready to go."

"We'll put you in a vacuum matress once we've got you out of the car, it'll immobilise you and help with the pain."

A raised voice carried from a few metres away.

"Somebody did call a pathologist actually. Dr Nikki Alexander, the woman trapped in that car…she works with me, they both do." Fresh tears leaked out, running down the well-established tracks in the blood and make-up on Nikki's face. Hearing a familiar voice made her feel so much less alone, her burden of worry could be shared. She wasn't the only person who needed Harry to be alright.

"Leo! LEO!" It was the first time she'd spoken other than to ask how Harry was, one of her paramedics went to fetch the newcomer who could clearly keep their patient alert and talking.

The newcomer's face was ashen when he saw the state of his friends, their car sandwiched between a 4x4 and a lamppost, he tried to smile when he approached Nikki but given that a car crash robbed him of Teresa and Cassie and now threatened the life of one of his friends, a smile was maybe too much to ask for.

"I'm here Nikki. Janet's meeting us at The Royal London," he glanced at the paramedics, "that is where you're taking them?"

"That's where Harry's going."

"And me." A paramedic didn't look too keen on the idea.

"That's a half hour drive."

"I don't care."

"Nikki the North Mid is-"

"I am going to the same hospital as Harry even if I have to drag myself along the road to do it. Leo can you call me a taxi?"

"Of course, unless you want me to take you?" He hoped she was bluffing, he really did, but years of friendship with his colleagues, years of watching their friendship, told him otherwise. Nikki was, in all likelihood, prepared to take a taxi across London, with broken bones and god knows what other injuries, to admit herself into the same hospital as Harry.

"Are you in any way joking?" Given the defeated look on the paramedic's face, she already knew the answer.

"Cast-iron, pig-headed stubborness. It's one of the things H...it's something I'm known for." More than one person caught her slip, but only Leo could guess at how close she was to falling apart if she was having trouble saying Harry's name. "So am I going to the Royal London in your ambulance or not.

"Yes...ok. Just as soon as we get the 4x4 and the lamppost out of the way."

"See, it won't be long now. Is there anybody you want me to call?" Nikki thought fleetingly of her father but pushed the idea away. It was hard enough seeing him when she had nothing else going on and she didn't have any intention of dividing her time between Harry and another person, whether that person was her father, her doctor or the Queen of bloody England.

"The only people I need are already here." If only they were both conscious.

"Nikki, it's Sam. We're going to start moving the other vehicle now and the sparky's just called. He's almost here."

"Is the KED and vacuum mattress ready?"

"Ready when you are Doc."

It took less than four minutes to move the 4x4 and cut the car door off, less than two to fit the KED and prepare to move him.

Nikki's chest went tight, which wasn't exactly painless given the state of her ribs. If anything happened to…if something went wrong, this could be the last time she saw Harry, the last time she touched him. Her vision blurred.

"Leo, go with Harry."

"Nikki…" His loyalty was clearly torn. Harry was the more seriously injured yet he could be of more use to Nikki because she was conscious.

"Please Leo, I'll be ok. Harry might not." Leo gave her a searching look. "For God's sake Leo! I don't need you to hold my hand!" He seemed to realise that knowing Harry wasn't alone would comfort her more than staying by her side and nodded in acquiescence.

"Alright. I'll find you when you get to the ED."

"Nikki we're ready to move him."

"Ok."

"You need to let go of Harry's hand."

"Oh." It felt like the hardest thing she'd ever done, but she let him go, managing one last glimpse of him, bundled up in the vacuum mattress. Leo followed the trolley to where she assumed the helicopter had landed.

The wreck of her car seemed to shrink in on her as the sound of helicopter blades began again.

* * *

**A/N: In reply to my anonymous reviewer. Thanks for your compliments. I'm not actually from London at all...the north or any other part...I'm 20+ junctions further up the M1 in the Midlands...which is why I knew nothing about HEMS or the London Trauma System. Having found the appropriate pages on Wikipedia I have to agree with you. Revisions are complete.**


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